Roland Hipkins (1894–1951) was an English artist who worked extensively in New Zealand between 1922 and 1951. He is especially noted for his work done in the wake of the
1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake
The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47am on 3 February, killing 256,The exact number of deaths varies according to different sources; the ''New Zealand Listener'' article cited be ...
. Works by Hipkins are held by the Hawkes Bay Cultural Trust, the Royal College of Art in London, and the Sarjeant Art Gallery in Wanganui.
Education
Hipkins was born at
Coseley
Coseley ( ) is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, Dudley district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is situated north of Dudley itself, on the border with Wolverhampton and Sandwell. It f ...
, in the
West Midlands of England on 25 November, 1894. He studied at the
Bilston School of Art before serving as a soldier in Malta and France between 1915 and 1918. In September 1919, he enrolled at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
, London and in 1921, produced a
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
titled ‘Mining’ for the student magazine published by the Royal College of Art. After completing his studies in July 1922, he moved to Napier, New Zealand.
Career
Hipkins arrived in Napier in 1922, as one of a number of La Trobe artists brought to New Zealand to improve the teaching of art in the country; other artists who came under the scheme included
Robert Nettleton Field,
Christopher Perkins and
Francis Shurrock.
[Michael Dunn, Roland Hipkins: Artist/Educator, Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery, 2007] Hipkins took up the position of art teacher at the
Napier Technical College, and helped establish the Napier Society of Arts and Crafts in 1923.
During his eight-year stay in Napier, he met the Scottish artist
Jenny Campbell
Jennifer Bernice Campbell (' Sproson; born 5 October 1961) is a British entrepreneur. She bought YourCash Europe Ltd from RBS in 2010. She was a "Dragon" in Series 15 and 16 of the UK's '' Dragons' Den'', between 2017 – 2019.
In 2010, Cam ...
. They were married on 5 November, 1924, and together they exhibited works at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in 1927.
In 1930, the couple moved to Wellington where Hipkins was appointed as an art teacher at the Technical School of Art. In the wake of the
Hawkes Bay Earthquake, which decimated Napier in February 1931, Hipkins returned to the town where he made numerous sketches and began work on ''Renaissance'' (1932), one of the more important art works to record the event. ''Renaissance'' was exhibited at the National Centennial Exhibition of New Zealand Art in 1940.
National Centennial Exhibition of New Zealand Art Catalogue
editor: A. H. McLintock, Department of Internal Affairs, 1940, Wellington.
Hipkins did not produce a large number of finished works over the course of his life and ill health in his final years, further reduced his output. He died in Wellington on 19 May, 1951.
Exhibitions
Hipkins exhibited with the:
Canterbury Society of Arts, 46th Annual Exhibition, Christchurch, 1926Canterbury Society of Arts, Christchurch, 1932
*Auckland Society of Arts, 56th Annual Exhibition, 1937.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hipkins, Roland
1894 births
1951 deaths
British Army soldiers
20th-century New Zealand painters
20th-century New Zealand male artists
People from Coseley
Alumni of the Royal College of Art
British emigrants to New Zealand
British Army personnel of World War I
Military personnel from the West Midlands (county)